Take Five!
by littlewhitetruth
Summary: It's Lily Evans' fifth year at Hogwarts, and James Potter is still trying to win her over. Will her friendship with Severus Snape survive the year's twists and turns?
1. Prefects

"SLYTHERIN!"

As the last first year (Webb, Lucy) was sorted, Lily Evans applauded politely with the rest of the students. Now in her fifth year, a prefect's badge was gleaming on the front of her robes. It was the talk of the small group of friends she was sat with.

"Ooh, Lily, I didn't see that coming!" gabbled Alice, poking it with her wand. A small, brown mark appeared where the wood had made contact with it, and Lily hastily scrubbed it off with her sleeve.

"You should have seen my mum when I got the letter," said Lily, "she wouldn't stop raving on about how proud she was; she even offered to get me an owl."

"An owl?" The girl with tightly curled dark hair across the table leaned forward towards the pair. "Please tell me you took her up on that offer? Your own owl…" Gwen stared off into the distance.

"No!" Lily bit her lip, and then lowered her voice. "I'm not sure my mum could have afforded it. You know, what with Tuney's school fees."

"But she offered, didn't she?" Alice swept her long, blonde hair out of her hazel eyes. "She wouldn't have given you the option if she didn't think she'd have been able to cope, would she?"

"It's just one of those things, you know? I couldn't. It didn't seem like the right thing to do…"

"Merlin's beard, Lily. Sometimes I wonder why you're not a Hufflepuff. You're too _noble_." Gwen smirked.

"Ssh!" She giggled.

"What have you got against Hufflepuff, Gwen?" said Alice, "My brother is a Hufflepuff, and you know that."

Gwen rolled her eyes, toffee-coloured skin taking on the slightest shade of pink. "Well, I was just saying that sometimes Lily acts like one. Y'know, all kind and thoughtful and stuff."

"Me, kind and thoughtful?" Lily shook her head, smiling. "If I was thoughtful then I wouldn't have trouble with Transfiguration."

"Oh no, Transfiguration," Gwen groaned. "Did you know that this year we're supposed to be getting at least an A grade, or Professor McGonagall won't submit us for the exam?"

"I bet that's just rumours," said Alice, "it would look better for her if we all did the test, wouldn't it"?

As her two best friends debated the legitimacy of the speculations, Lily craned her neck slightly, trying to find the familiar black curtain of hair that occupied the Slytherin table. She couldn't see him. Making a mental note to catch him briefly after the feast, she turned back to her two friends, who had now moved on to talking about the requirements for NEWT levels in the subjects they excelled in.

She couldn't help but wonder, however, which house her little sister would have been in. Tuney, the youngest of the Evans siblings: shy and loud, precautious and daring… the Sorting Hat would have had a challenge sorting her. She could imagine Petunia being as anxious as she herself had been when first entering the Great Hall, despite all of the detailed stories that had been eagerly recounted during the summer of Lily's first year at Hogwarts. What if she hadn't been sorted into Gryffindor? Would that make her upset?

Professor Dumbledore had stepped up to address the entire school. She snapped out of her reverie, turning her attention to the headmaster as the twittering of students died down.

"Welcome, all of you, to Hogwarts," he began. "I hope that you have spent your summers well. However, I do appreciate the fact that most of you have not eaten for hours and so I end thus: enjoy your meals!"

There was the usual gasp of the unsuspecting eleven-year-olds as the food appeared on the table. Lily smiled softly to herself as she reached over to serve herself to some strange-looking risotto.

The conversation about prefects continued throughout their main course, and Gwen let slip that she'd heard that Uberto Williams, a Ravenclaw who had transferred to Hogwarts the previous year, was a prefect as well. Lily remembered his name, but matching a face to it would have been difficult.

Dessert arrived, and Lily all but forgot about how full her stomach was at the sight of a large bowl of lemon sorbet sitting across the table from her.

No sooner had her fingers clasped around the spoon than another hand had swooped down on top of hers. She could tell who it was without having to check, but grimaced all the same when she looked up to see James Potter sitting with his stupid little crew across the table, a few seats up from Gwen. He was smiling that silly half-grin that set some of the other girls swooning. "Alright, Evans?"

She swatted his hand away. "I was 'alright' until I saw you," Lily imitated his troll-like voice, loading rice onto her plate.

James held his hands up in protest. "Why so tetchy? I'm only trying to be friendly to one of our new prefects." He tried to sound innocent, but it was not working. "The best-looking prefect, if I may say so."

"That's hardly true," One of his friends interrupted, looking incredibly smug: Sirius Black. He nudged the boy sat next to him, who had dark rings under his eyes. To Lily's dismay, there was a prefect's badge pinned to his chest. "Remus Lupin is fair competition for Lily Evans, wouldn't you say so, eh James?" Sirius grinned wider.

James elbowed him in the ribs. "Nice try, but I'm not going to go kissing Loopy, alright?"

Lily hunched over her dinner, but James poked her on the shoulder. "I'm always free, remember, if you ever change your mind."

"I don't have to remember, you pig," Lily sneered, meeting his brown eyes. "As if a girl with an ounce of common sense would be seen anywhere near you."

"Oh, I beg to differ," his eyes glinted mischievously. "I'll bet you ten galleons that third year," he pointed to the Ravenclaw table. Lily turned her head to see a girl with sleek bunches sat chatting with a friend "would blush if I so much as gave her a wink."

"Clear off, Potter. I'd sooner go out with any boy in this school for a year than spend a day with you."

"What, even the Fat Friar?" Sirius Black interjected, causing the three boys to erupt with laughter.

"How about Julius Freedmon? I bet you find his glasses really sexy," James grinned.

"I bet she'd even go out with old Snivellus, wouldn't you?" Sirius laughed.

Lily's green eyes flashed dangerously. "Severus is twice the man you'll ever be."

James smirked "Yeah, he's already got twice the nose!"

Her fists balled up, nails digging into her palms. "I'm warning you, Potter," she growled, venom seething through her voice.

"Oh, come on, you've got to admit that any normal girl wouldn't go near Snivelly with a-"

She swung her foot under the table, making contact with James' shins. For a fleeting second, there was a flicker of pain in his eyes, but it was replaced immediately by a cocky sparkle. "Ooh, no need to get violent. You're supposed to be setting an example for us lower beings, what with that shiny badge and all."

Seething, Lily blocked out his voice until he stopped pestering her, absent-mindedly shovelling sorbet into her mouth.

Lily restarted her conversation with Gwen and Alice in an attempt to stop James and his gang from bothering her. Of course, she was listening, but only taking in half of what they were saying. She felt so tired…

"… and he was covered head to toe in raisins!" Gwen laughed at her own story; Alice and Lily both giggled.

Suddenly, their empty plates vanished from in front of them, and Dumbledore rose once again. "I hope that you all found that as enjoyable as I did. However, there is learning to be done come tomorrow morning! Off to bed with you all!"

It was only a nudge from Alice that reminded Lily that she was supposed to be leading the first-years up to the Gryffindor common room. She stood up, looking up and down the table for new, anxious faces. "First-year Gryffindors, follow me, please."

"Yeah, and me too," With a sickening pang she remembered that Remus Lupin was a prefect as well. She wouldn't have a chance to catch up with Snape. Plastering a fake smile onto her face, she swept her gaze over the small gaggle that had formed behind her, before making her way out of the Great Hall.

The excited tittering started sounding as they reached the bottom of the moving staircases. It was a knack, using those stairs. Get your timings wrong, and you could be delayed by as long as an hour.

Lily climbed up to the first floor, all the while looking behind her, making sure there were no stragglers who had been distracted by one of the moving portraits, or whom Peeves had decided to wreak havoc on. Remus had given up his position at the rear and was walking by Lily's side by the time that they reached the third floor.

"Listen, Evans, I know James can be a prat sometimes, but he's alright. Give him a chance, would you?"

"Sometimes? Oh, well if that isn't the biggest understatement of the century then I don't know what it is."

"I'm not trying to be funny, here. He's my mate."

"Well then. You're not doing him much justice by begging me to forgive him. He's a big-headed idiot. Just because he can catch a snitch, he thinks that everyone should bow down to him."

"Evans-"

"Watch out for the trick step!" She called over her shoulder, hearing a high pitched squeal as someone's foot sank through the staircase. She sighed, doubling back to hoist a particularly freckly little boy back onto his feet. He squeaked, "Thanks, Miss!" before flushing scarlet and turning back to his friend. She found her way to the front of the group, where Remus was waiting with a slightly irritated expression on his face.

"I genuinely …"

"Look, I appreciate that you're only doing what you're told, Lupin, but you've got to make him realise that we are never going to happen. The sooner he knows that, the better."

They were both silent until they reached the Gryffindor common room, where the Fat Lady was sat in her pink dress. A friendly smile was cast at the first-years as she said, "Password?"

"Fuerit Inventus," Lily spoke clearly enough for the newcomers to hear. She hoped that they'd remember.

The portrait swung forward. Lily and Remus climbed in, the small group following.

"This is the common room of Gryffindor house," began Lily, "and you'll find your dormitories up the stairs over here: girls, on your right; boys, on your left."

"Your stuff has already been brought up, so don't you worry about that," Remus piped up, leaning against one of the tables. He looked at the group through his long fringe, smiling.

The first years moved towards the staircase, all the while talking among themselves. As the last trickle of students clambered up the stairs, Lily sank into one of the chintz armchairs, rubbing her temple with her right hand.

"Lily, I'm-"

"Just… leave me be. Please." Lily closed her eyes, the crackling of the fire a distraction from Remus. A distraction from James Potter.

She half-expected a witty retort, but after a minute of silence, she opened one eyelid and saw that he had left her alone. Lips curving up faintly, she shut her eyes once more, and didn't awake until the morning.


	2. Outcast

Two hands were shaking her shoulders. "Lily, wake up!"

She thrust her head out of sleep in confusion, making out the blurred outlines of Alice and Gwen. "What time is it?" she murmured, rubbing her eyes wearily.

"Eight-forty-five. You've got to be in Charms in fifteen minutes."

Lily jerked out of the chair as if someone had set it on fire. "Do you have your timetables then?"

Alice rolled her eyes and handed her a piece of parchment. Lily scanned it quickly, learning that after Charms she had Transfiguration, History of Magic, Herbology and Potions. Not quite the cheery start to the year that she had been expecting, but it could have been worse.

The three girls climbed out of the portrait hole and started towards the seventh floor. Gwen didn't seem to be in the mood for talking, but Alice, like she always did, acted bright and bubbly. "Can you believe it? Remus Lupin is a prefect?"

"It's not that surprising, if I'm totally honest," Lily pondered. "He's not as bad as Sirius… or James," her tone darkened.

"I suppose so… but do you think he'll start getting pig-headed as well? If he still hangs around with Potter and that lot…"

"If he hasn't become an idiot in all the years he's been in their little crew then I doubt very much that getting the prefect's badge is going to do a lot to him. He's actually an alright kind of guy."

Alice's eyes widened. "Do you mean-"

"No! Of course not!" Lily laughed. "I mean, he's nice enough, it's just that he always seems to take orders from James and Sirius. I couldn't be friends with someone who has the potential to become a mirror image of those two prats."

While Alice spent her first lesson down in the dungeons for Potions (she was in her sixth year at Hogwarts), Lily and Gwen were in Professor Flitwick's class. Charms wasn't any different from usual. Lily was glad to notice the absence of both Sirius and James, although Remus was present, and was sat by another boy with pointed features: the newest addition to Potter's gang, Peter Pettigrew. She hoped that the other two had attempted some kind of shake-up during the night, and were getting reprimanded in Professor Dumbledore's office.

Gwen had noticed the absence of the two trouble-makers as well, although her reaction wasn't the same as Lily's had been. "I wonder where Sirius is," she said airily, the teapot they were supposed to be making whistle turning a violent shade of pink.

"Don't worry about that prat, just concentrate on this," Lily laughed as Gwen's teapot started hopping from side to side. She prodded it with her wand, causing it to freeze.

"Thanks," mumbled Gwen, "but Lily, I wouldn't go so far as to say he's a prat. What has he ever done to you?"

Lily waved her wand at her own teapot, which started whistling 'tiptoe through the tulips'. "He's so big-headed. Just because he isn't the worst looking boy in Hogwarts he thinks that gives him a reason to act like he owns the place. He and James are both too big for their boots, if you ask me."

"Oh, come on! I wouldn't say no to Sirius. I bet you wouldn't either, given the chance."

"What, after how he's treated Sev for the past four years? I don't think so."

Gwen sighed. "Snape isn't exactly a saint himself. I mean, he hangs around with Avery. He gives me the creeps. He gives everyone the creeps. Daphne thinks that he's going to drop out next year to join the Death Eaters." Her voice became hushed.

"Gwen!"

"It's only what I heard!" Her hands flew up in defence.

"I don't care if you've heard that Avery is You-Know-Who in disguise. Just because Sev is with him a lot it doesn't mean that they're exactly alike. Sirius and James couldn't be more arrogant if they tried."

Lily glanced up to see Lupin looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She blushed and kept her eyes low again. "Sev has been my friend since I was nine years old," she began quietly, deliberating. "Before we came to Hogwarts, he was the one who explained to me why I could do things that other kids couldn't. It wasn't until we got sorted into Gryffindor and Slytherin that things got difficult. You remember our first year, don't you? Everyone looked at me funny when I was friendly to him. We aren't sorted into houses of good and evil, Gwen. But some people have got it into their heads that every Slytherin is going to grow up to become a follower of You-Know-Who. It's not fair. I didn't mean for things to change like that."

Gwen was stunned into silence for a moment. "Lily, I-"

"Don't worry. I just don't want to have to choose between you and Sev. I can't, and I won't."

Lily hissed "_Silencio_!" at her teapot, which abruptly halted its tune.

By the time that Lily and Gwen had made their way down to Professor McGonagall's classroom, the small disagreement in Charms had all but been forgotten.

"Did you notice that Flitwick let us out a bit early?" Gwen gabbled.

"He must have been in a good mood for some reason."

"'For some reason'? He was obviously impressed with your work. You're probably the best in our year."

"At Charms, maybe I am… but that's pretty much it. I've been getting Ps and Ds in Transfiguration. Don't even mention my Herbology grades."

"Potions? Defence Against the Dark Arts?" Gwen raised her eyebrows. "Why do you think you're in the Slug Club?"

"I used to be rubbish at Potions until Sev started sharing notes with me, and the only thing that motivates me in Defence Against the Dark Arts is the hope that I might one day learn a hex that will deflate James Potter's huge-"

They stepped into the classroom, to see both James Potter and Sirius Black sat at the very front of the classroom. Professor McGonagall's head snapped up as the two girls came in. "Welcome back, Miss Bailey and Miss Evans. Please take a seat; we have a lot to go through today."

James and Sirius both turned around to see the new addition to the class. Instead of grinning cockily, as Lily thought they would have done, they both seemed lifeless; almost bored. Maybe they'd had detention?

"Professor McGonagall, when did Sirius and James get here?" Gwen seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Lily.

"About an hour ago. They both need intensive Transfiguration revision sessions, given their appalling grades in the end-of-year tests."

Feeling a little smug, Lily gave each boy a smile that was ever so slightly too wide. Sirius groaned and buried his face in his arms, but James glared back at Lily. Her mood lifted slightly as she found her usual seat at the far end of the classroom, away from Gwen who sat with another Gryffindor (Harriet Tennison-Spilsbury).

Just then, the Slytherins arrived. She whipped her head around to see Severus Snape a few paces behind the rest of the students, dark eyes scanning the room. As he caught Lily's gaze, his lips twitched into a half-smile as he strode across the classroom and took his seat beside her. She threw her arms around his neck. "Hey, Sev!" She beamed at him, ignoring the titters from the other students.

"Hi."

"Did you have a good summer? How was Snowdonia?"

"It was okay." He shrugged. "My mum swore she saw a Common Welsh Green near one of the Muggle campsites."

Lily's eyes widened. "A real dragon? I thought the Ministry were rounding them all up?"

"They're obviously not doing a very good job then, are they?"

She laughed. "I'd love to do that: finding all the dragons that are still wild. I mean, obviously not alone, but the opportunities to travel around are amazing. I could go to China, or to Norway… I could see the Northern Lights!"

"The Northern Lights?" Severus sniffed. "You do know what they really are, don't you?"

"No," Lily was perplexed.

"My mum says that they're just a bunch of waves made from Floo fire. Y'know, when you use the Floo network-"

"Yeah," Lily remembered the one time she had travelled by Floo powder: in the summer of her second year at Hogwarts she had stepped into the fireplace at Diagon Alley and ended up in Alice's living room.

"Apparently it's really hostile up there. Muggle aeroplanes go missing, and even people on brooms find themselves places that they didn't intend to go to."

Lily gaped. "Wow…"

The rest of the Gryffindors filed in, including Remus and Peter, who made a beeline for Sirius and James. Lily rolled her eyes. "Typical. I'd bet five galleons that none of them will pass the OWL. Did you hear about McGonagall having to give them all extra-?"

"Good morning, class," barked Professor McGonagall. "I hope you're all ready to work, because the material I am to teach you this term is not going to be simple."

Sure enough, by the end of the lesson, Lily's head ached from the new information that had been loaded onto them. That wasn't counting the homework – two rolls of parchment on the benefits of transfiguration to the modern wizard.

On the way out of the class to morning break, Lily heard Sirius bragging about how easy he had found the past hour. "All of that stuff she was rabbiting on about being 'almost NEWT standard' I could do last year. I reckon she's just trying to scare us all into doing more work, if you ask me."

Lily couldn't help but smirk.

Unfortunately, James must have heard her, because he spun round to give her an impish grin. "What was that, Evans? Don't you agree? I'd have thought an intelligent young lady such as you would have breezed through all that drivel."

"Oh, so you understood everything, did you? No need for revision, or any help at all?"

James bristled noticeably, but his tone was the same drawl it always had been. "She's barking if she thinks that we won't be able to cope. In fact, I'll give you my Cleansweep Five if I don't get an O grade."

"That'll be the day," Lily laughed, rushing on ahead to catch up with Gwen.

The next two lessons were pretty much the same as Transfiguration, in that the teachers emphasized the importance of the new information they were going to be taught, and the students were sat desperately trying to understand it all. That being said, Lily noted that there weren't many students who paid attention in History of Magic; she was not one of them.

The last lesson of the day, Potions, was something that Lily both looked forward to and didn't want to come around: she found it a great subject; however Professor Slughorn's fondness of her became almost irritating after an hour or two in his company.

When Lily and Gwen went to sit together in the dungeons, they found that there were pieces of parchment floating above each seat, each with a different name on them, coupled with a house crest. "I take it that we're sitting apart then," said Gwen somewhat morosely as she inspected the name paired with her own; a Ravenclaw. "Eliza Smythe? Isn't she the one who almost got killed by the Whomping Willow in our first year?"

Lily vaguely recalled a plump, blonde girl lying in the hospital wing with purple bruises spread over her body. "Yeah, I remember. I'll talk to you later then."

She walked up and down each aisle, searching for the scrap of parchment bearing her name, praying that she wasn't seated next to James or Sirius. Eventually, she found Slughorn's scrawl reading 'Lily Evans' on the far left of the classroom. She took her seat, peering at the name next to hers. 'Uberto Williams'. '_Another prefect, supposedly,_' thought Lily, '_it could be a lot worse._'

Just as she had set down her satchel, the doors of the dungeons creaked open and Slughorn entered the room. "Hurry up! I'd have thought you Ravenclaws would have had the intelligence to turn up on time to your lesson after a lunch break," He chuckled to himself as he made his way towards the teacher's desk.

The students who had just entered the class didn't seem to notice the seating arrangements at first, however murmurs arose as the confusion swept through them. Lily turned her head to the front of the room once more, focussing on what Slughorn was writing on the chalkboard.

"Excuse me, please could you move your… um, _borsa_… bag?"

"Of course, I-" Lily batted her bag off of the seat next to her and kicked it over to rest at her feet. She looked up at the stranger, who smiled kindly back at her with yellow eyes.

"Hello. I am Uberto."


End file.
